Beyond Performance 2.0, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10Making It Happen

Do You Have What It Takes?

In the 1999 film The Matrix, the protagonist, Neo, is offered a choice of two pills: one red, one blue. If he takes the red pill, it will show him that he’s living in an illusion. He’ll discover the painful truth that reality is far more complex and demands far more from him than he’d ever imagined. But if he chooses the blue pill, he’ll go back to his old life, in blissful ignorance of the illusion. After a moment’s thought, he takes the red pill—a choice that marks the beginning of an epic personal journey. In a series of heroic acts, Neo finally frees the human race from a prison: one it had created for itself through its dependence on intelligent machines that would ultimately turn against it.

We suspect that many leaders—perhaps you?—will be faced with a similar choice after reading this book. If you choose the red pill, you’re committing yourself to adopting the approach to making change happen in the way that we’ve outlined here, an approach that is equally balanced between performance and health. The catch is that if you take this path, it will be more challenging than others you could follow and will make more demands of you as a leader both in terms of “doing” and “being.” And despite the science that we’ve brought to bear, it’s still a path that leads you into unknown territory as you likely haven’t personally led or experienced the approach before—it’s a leap of faith, if you will.

The alternative is the blue ...